Wednesday, October 17, 2012

A Sabbatical

When we were interviewing as a possibility to come pastor North Street Community Church of the Nazarene, the church board and I agreed that an agreed sabbath plan was a good idea. Aspects of this plan have risen and fallen and risen again (weekly and tri-monthly rhythms). But the notion that I would take an extended sabbatical period in the seventh year of ministry is coming to fruition.

Next summer I will be taking a sabbatical from June through early September. I am very excited about this and what it means for myself, my family, my extended family, and our church community. I will share more details in the coming months, but in general, my family and I will be traveling to re-connect with tradition, family, and culture. This will include Nazarene General Assembly (at the very beginning, thankfully), northern Vermont for a couple of weeks, Switzerland, Israel, and Virginia. After Vermont, I will travel to the West Coast to drive from Portland, OR to San Diego, CA visiting with various pastors & friends and Christian communities that I've admired from afar. My parents and my in-laws will be with us at various points. When I go to Israel, it will be with my father and father-in-law.

This is all in great thanks to our church's application to the Lilly Endowment and their National Clergy Renewal Program. The whole sabbatical period is fully funded by the Endowment. We are so thankful. In addition to our activities, there are a number of opportunities for us to study and share sabbath together with our church community, culminating with a weekend retreat in the early fall.

As part of the proposal, I said that I'd be sending reports back (non-interactively) about what I'm doing. At the moment, I plan on using this site/blog.